Schedule Changes

I had scheduled for last Thursday to write on a question I am asked in my seminars, “What is the best Bible for me to use.”  It is a great question, for which I have a detailed answer.  However, some things changed Thursday…

That last Monday (4/20) I had a PET scan.  It was supposed to be done in Houston but because of the virus, the trip to MD Anderson was canceled and I was instructed to get it here.  Wednesday, I met with the MD Anderson oncologist by video conference, we had sent her the disc overnight, but she did not have it yet.  That afternoon I met with the oncologist here and we went over the scan.  There were some changes, there is one lymph node that she had been watching.  It seemed to have grown.

The one thing that was weird, there were some liver numbers that were weird.  So, she asked me to check with the infectious disease doctor… So, Thursday morning, we met on video.  He wondered if the numbers were messed up due to exercise.  I was planning to ride 23 miles later that day, the doctor told me to get blood redrawn on Friday.

Did not make the 23-mile ride.  Back tire blew at 13.  Could not get the pump to work, that is another story… My son had to come get me.  He got me back to the car and just as I was moving my bike from his bike rack to mine, MD Anderson called.

They had looked at the PET scan and had determined the lymph node they had been watching had grown to the point that we needed to start treatment.  The oncologists and the infectious disease doc spoke on Friday morning and I got a long message outline what was going to happen.

I got a port yesterday, an echo cardiogram today, and met with the oncologist here to get the details of the treatment late this afternoon.  Next Monday I get a bone marrow biopsy, and the week of the 11th I will start treatment.

I have a lot more to share about this, some things that the Lord has already taught me.  But our schedule has been radically changed.  I was going to Togo the first week of June, and Jenny and I were going to South Africa in July.  Not now.

One thing of note.  On Wednesday, tomorrow night.  I will be speaking at our church online (full disclosure, I recorded this at our home on Saturday).  The session starts at 6:30 PM CDT, and you can watch it either at the church website or on the church Facebook page.  I am talking about the need to personally engage in the scripture.  The outline is:

• What are the ways we can engage?
• Why it is critical for each of us to engage.
• Some ideas on how to start or keep going.

I will answer questions by text, email, or Facebook comment afterwards.  If that is of help or interest, let people know.

The Use of Secondary Sources

Over the years the Lord has provided me with several opportunities to share with people why they need to be in the Word of God for themselves.  What that means is that they are not using secondary sources but directly reading and studying the Bible.

Secondary sources include but are not limited to:

• Notes in a study Bible
• Commentaries
• Devotionals
• Books about the Bible or Topics in the Bible
• Messages live or recorded
• Fill in the blank or other types of Bible Study guides.

Now before I explain why I encourage people not to use these, full disclosure, I have every one of those resources in my office and on my computer, in addition to some technical resources that I have not named.  Further, I have at various times derived benefit from all those types of resources.

Why then, do I encourage people not to use them?

The answer is priority or sequence.  These are appropriate after we have studied or attempted to study a passage on our own.  If we pick up one of these at the beginning of our study or interaction with the Word of God, what is said in the resource will become a filter for what we see in the text.  On the other hand, if we engage in the Word ourselves first, then when we utilize the resource, we are comparing what is said there with what we have seen.  So instead of it becoming a filter, it then becomes a supplement, another set of eyes on the passage.  Then we are in a dialog with the one who created the resource.

According to Jesus, and I will take Him at His word on this, one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit other than inspiring the Word of God, is to help us understand it, John 16:13 (here @ Bible Gateway).  If when we are working through a passage we bail out of the text and go to secondary sources as soon as we hit something that challenges us, we are not leaving room for the Spirit to lead us into truth.

We need to let Him do what He was sent to do.

With Ordinary Means

Yesterday I shared a friend of mine says how we needed to engage successfully with the Bible:

• With the help of the Holy Spirit 
• With humble effort 
• With ordinary means 

I want to focus on the last. “With ordinary means”, today.  We talked briefly about this the other night.  Essentially, my friend was saying that we do not need secondary sources to engage with the Bible successfully.  All we need is a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and a pen.  His suggestion was to write down questions that one has as they are reading.  That is a great idea.

Earlier in the week one of our friends was sharing online in this series and he suggested that one write down their observations about the text as well as note any signposts that they saw as they read.  The signposts to which he referred are much like the structural markers that have been discussed in this blog.

Either practice is good for at least two reasons.  First, writing down your reaction to what you are reading in the text slows you down.  The simple act of writing down what you think will help you clarify your understanding of what you have been reading.  Second, and this is closely related to the first, writing down what you are seeing or what questions you have engages you at a different level of thinking than simply reading.  Try it, you will be convinced quickly.

You will note that neither of my friends mentioned using study Bibles or commentaries.  They were focused on being in the text of the Bible.  After all that is what is inspired.  The notes in the study Bible and the commentaries are not.  I have written on the use of commentaries a lot, you can skim that content by typing “commentaries” in the “search this blog” field on the top of the column on the right or by clicking here.